Bev Moon

Bev Moon’s great-grandfathers travelled to Aotearoa New Zealand from China in the 1880s, settling in Te Waipounamu South Island to take advantage of the opportunities created by the gold rush. The Ng King Brothers Chinese Market Garden, established by Moon’s paternal ancestral clan, operated in the rural town of Ashburton between 1921 and 1964 and became one of the largest market gardens in Te Waipounamu. Moon’s grandfather, Ng Kew, was also involved in the garden’s operations, which supplied up to seventy percent of the region’s population – at one time, as many as eighty people were living on site. The garden tools made by Moon in this work are a poignant tribute to the labour performed by generations of Chinese settlers, the skills they brought to this land and their invaluable contribution to communities across the country. Resembling tools unearthed from archaeological market garden sites, these objects also stand in for the bones of her ancestors. The site of the Ng King Brothers Chinese Market Garden settlement is now recognised by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga as a place of special cultural and historical significance

(He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil, 2025)